Superintendents: School funding inadequate

By Gary WeckselblattStaff Writer

Thursday

Oct 16, 2014 at 12:01 AMOct 16, 2014 at 6:30 PM

As school superintendents testified before the commonwealth’s Basic Education Funding Commission on Thursday, a consistent theme was echoed through their pleas to lawmakers — state funding of basic education is inadequate.

And most of the officials were not from financially distressed school systems. They represented suburban districts that would be considered well-off financially.

Curtis Griffin of Hatboro-Horsham, whose district recently received a credit upgrade, said “our financial future is bleak” because of the burden placed on local taxpayers. “I find that the current public school funding is inadequate, inequitable, unfair, unpredictable and unsustainable,” he said.

Curtis Dietrich of North Penn, Montgomery County’s largest school district, drove home the point of the inequities with an illustration that showed the state contributing $7.2 million in 2001 to North Penn’s $125 million budget. In 2014, with a budget that grew $98 million to $223 million, the state’s share increased less than $2 million to just under $9 million.

State Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151, who represents the communities that fill those districts, said the funding is “hardly living up to our constitutional obligation to our students.”

Thursday’s three-hour hearing at Perkiomen Valley High School in Montgomery County was among several planned by the 15-member commission. It is tasked with developing and recommending to the General Assembly a new formula for distributing state funding that will take into account several factors, including wealth, local taxes, geographic price differences and student enrollment.

According to Griffin, state funding ranges from a low of 10 percent to a high of 78 percent of a district’s budget, with most suburban districts in Bucks and Montgomery County receiving a number somewhere in the teens.

The hearing’s host, Superintendent Cliff Rogers, said while the state on average funds 35 percent of district budgets, the Perkiomen Valley School District receives 20 percent funding. The difference, he said, adds $1,222 to the average homeowner’s tax bill.

Charles Zogby, Secretary of the Budget, did not give much hope that additional money would materialize. Speaking to a panel that included Dietrich, Griffin, Stephens and Phoenixville Superintendent Alan Fegley, he said, “A lot of communities around this commonwealth would be very envious to be in your shoes.”

He said the state is already paying more than it ever has for K-to-12 education “but those dollars are going into the pension system. ... Past decisions didn’t turn out so well.”

Funding all districts at 35 percent would cost upward of $1 billion, he said. “I wonder where that money comes from? There is no free lunch. ... Our kids are our most important priority, but there are limits to what we can support.”

“It’s gonna come out of the left-hand pocket or the right-hand pocket.”

He asked the panel if their communities would rather see increased sales and income taxes to fund more school spending.

Stephens told him “my taxpayers” were already paying more in income and sales tax in addition to higher property taxes. “So we’re getting it at both ends,” he said.

Dietrich suggested seven factors that should be included in a funding formula: market value of the school district’s real estate property; personal income of the school district’s residents; total number of district students; number of students in poverty; number of English language learners; number of gifted students; and number of special education students.

The superintendents cited increasing pension and health care costs, the “hold harmless” clause and special education as budget items that are not sustainable.

Superintendent David Zerbe, of Methacton, described them as “mandated costs that drive at the heart of our mission” and called the retirement system “downright insane.”

Citing an expected $7 million increase in the next five years, he said, “How will this $7 million help our students?”

Dietrich agreed pension funding is an “obvious significant drain. ... Until that problem is solved, we’re going to have a major issue,” he said.

Dietrich, whose district receives nearly $13 million a year from the pharmaceutical company Merck, 8.35 percent of North Penn’s budget, said schools that receive increased funding through hold harmless despite a dwindling student population are problematic.

“I believe we have far too many school districts in Pennsylvania,” he said. “I think there would be some room for consolidation.”

Fegley pushed health care reform, specifically a requirement for working spouses of school employees to be covered by their employer’s insurance plan.

It doesn’t seem like House and Senate Bill 76, the Property Tax Independence Act, has much support among the commission or superintendents. The measure would eliminate residential property taxes and replace the local revenue by increasing the sales-tax base, the sales-tax rate and the personal-income-tax rate.

Asked by state Rep. Bernie O’Neill, R-29, for their thoughts on the legislation, Dietrich said, “You cannot have 76. It will not work.”